The purpose of Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Conferences (GEER) is to provide a forum for physical, biological, and social scientists to share their knowledge and research results concerning Everglades restoration. The objectives of these conferences are to define specific restoration goals, determine the best approaches to meet these goals, and provide benchmarks that could be used to measure the success of restoration efforts over time. To these ends, the conference recognized the need to synthesize information gathered since the first Everglades conference, the interdisciplinary nature of Everglades restoration, and the need to adapt scientific understanding to management action.

There have been two conferences so far. The first conference was held December 11-15, 2000, in Naples, Florida. The second conference was held in conjunction with the Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Conference on April 13-18, in Palm Harbor, Florida.

There are two related USGS publications from each of these conferences:

• Open File Report 00-449 - U.S. Geological Survey Program on the South Florida Ecosystem: 2000 Proceedings
• Open File Report 03-54 - U. S. Geological Survey Greater Everglades Science Program: 2002 Biennial Report